Israeli Bank Fined $270 Million for Tax Dodges

WASHINGTON (CN) – An Israeli bank will pay $270 million for helping U.S. citizens dodge taxes, federal prosecutors said Monday. Bank Leumi Group agreed to pay the $270 million under a nonprosecution agreement deferring prosecution on a criminal information, the Department of Justice said in a statement. The bank was charged with conspiring to aid and assist in filing false tax returns and other documents with the IRS. Prosecutors called it an “unprecedented agreement” for an Israeli bank, and said the conspiracy went on for 10 years, at the bank’s branches in Switzerland, Luxembourg and the United States.